Wall Street tumbles after auto bailout bill fails in Senate

New York, Dec 12 (Xinhua) Wall Street tumbled Friday morning after the auto bailout bill died in the US Senate, with the Dow and Standard & Poor’s 500 dropping over two percent in the opening.The bill for a potential $14 billion package to aid the automakers collapsed in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for wage cuts.

Early in the day, the White House said it was considering using the $700 billion financial industry bailout fund to prevent US automakers from failing.

Retail sales in the United States fell 1.8 percent in November, marking the fifth consecutive monthly drop, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The November decline in retail sales followed an even bigger plunge of 2.9 percent in October and was slightly below the 1.9 percent dip that had been expected.